My Years with General Motors (1964), by Alfred P. Sloan Jr.

By Andrea Sachs

The author, the CEO of GM from 1923-1946, was an industry titan who led the Detroit carmaker to become the largest corporation in the world. Publication of this forthright book was blocked for years by GM's lawyers, who feared its revelations about the inside-workings of the company would be used against it in litigation. Sloan's shrewd lessons about managing the automotive behemoth, from corporate structure to product development to finance, are still considered a business-school must-read. "A car for every purse and purpose," indeed.